TRUCKEE, Calif. (BRAIN) — Over the next five days some 300 dealers, many of them authorized Salsa dealers, will get a peek at what Quality Bicycle Products has to offer for 2017.
And highlighting its push into a new season is its Salsa line of bikes — 14 different platforms and 54 different models. It's biggest ever. Salsa's scope rivals that of some of the industry's major brands, said Mike 'Kid' Riemer, Salsa's marketing manager.
The cycling press was given a preview of the Salsa line Sunday afternoon as well as other QBP categories including Surly, Foundry, 45NRTH, All City and Quality wheels as the first wave of dealers began trickling into Northstar at Tahoe mid-afternoon Sunday.
Northstar is a ski resort and real estate development about seven miles from Truckee, Calif. Most dealers will fly into Reno, Nevada, and take a 45-minute shuttle ride from Reno's airport to the resort. A Sunday night reception and dinner kicked off the annual event with dealers getting to see QBP's full line of products Monday.
QBP is bringing its dealers to Northstar in four separate waves throughout the week so they will have time to ride and write orders for all its brands.
And Justin Julian, Salsa's brand manager, has high hopes when it comes to getting orders for Salsa as the dealer event unwinds.
"I expect about 75 percent of them will be writing orders here," he said following the Salsa press presentation. Julian, an affable Missourian by birth, had spent much of the last two weeks fielding phone calls and concerns among Salsa's dealers over its decision to open 11 REI stores with the brand.
"I was fielding phone calls day and night it seemed," he said. "But I think I was able to explain our position and reasoning to most of them," he added.
Overall, Salsa has about 350 dealers in the U.S. and more in Canada. The brand is also distributed overseas in the United Kingdom, Germany, Italy and Japan. About 20 percent of Salsa's overall sales are made overseas, he said.
Riemer, a 21-year veteran at QBP, said Salsa's number one goal is to be positioned as the leading brand in what QBP views as a growing category for adventure cycling — that includes gravel, endurance racing, bike packing, fat bikes and traditional mountain biking.
Riemer made several key points in an interview later in the day including the fact that no model in the Salsa line exceeds $5,999. "That's still a lot of money; I can't afford that, but there are those who can," he said.
Still, there are plenty of models that use the same platform as high-end bikes while starting at $999, and then they step up through various price points.
Salsa is pinning its future on the concept of "Adventure by Bike" and those adventures fail to include models equipped with Di2 — a departure from major brands pushing Di2 throughout their lines.
As for electric bikes, Riemer and Julian laughed and said the topic of e-mountain bikes makes for lively discussions at QBP. But Riemer pointed out that Salsa runs counter to much of the industry's thinking when it comes to competition and speed.
"We want to own the adventure category and part of that is we believe in the promise that adventure cycling brings to consumers," he said.
Most consumers aren't looking for speed. "Most cycling is done at relatively low speeds, but competition has been the way the industry has promoted itself," Riemer added.
